Tags:

Text Size

-

+

reset

Previewing the right’s planned reaction, Wendy E. Long, counsel to the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, said in a statement: "Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench.”

However, the fact that Sotomayor is a Latina could also present a political challenge for Republicans. Senators from the GOP, which has suffered from an internal rift over immigration issues and troubled efforts to reach out to Hispanics, will have to decide how directly and sharply they want to attack a Latina whose confirmation to the court is virtually certain.

Republicans plan to pound a videotape in which Sotomayor said on a Duke University Law School panel in 2005 that the “court of appeals is where policy is made”

“And I know,” she added, “I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I’m not promoting it. I’m not advocating it. I’m — you know.”

A product of New York’s parochial schools, Sotomayor went to Princeton (summa cum laude) and then Yale Law School.

She worked for the Manhattan DA’s office, did a stint in private practice before being named to the Appeals Court by President Bill Clinton in 1998.

She would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the nine-member panel and become only the third woman among 111 justices in the court's history.

Liberal activists have signaled that they are unlikely to oppose Sotomayor, though some favored more of an ideological firebrand given Obama’s strong political position and the large majority Democrats enjoy in the Senate. One seed for suspicion among some liberals is that Sotomayor was first nominated as a federal district court judge by President George H.W. Bush, in 1992.

Michael Keegan, head of the liberal People for the American Way, said the choice of Sotomayor shows that Obama is doing “exactly what he promised in last year’s election—to select a person who has demonstrated an abiding commitment to core constitutional values of justice, opportunity, and equality under the law. He has named someone who understands the impact that the law has on the everyday lives of ordinary Americans.”

Sotomayor’s nomination is likely to draw attention to the divisive issue of affirmative action, due to a ruling she joined last year against white New Haven firefighters who complained that their rights were violated on a promotion test that was withdrawn after African-American candidates did poorly on it. The case caused a bitter divide among 2nd Circuit judges and is set to be argued before the Supreme Court this term.

Obama’s decision to pick a nominee who bring affirmative action to the fore is a curious one since he has raised questions about the practice, at least in some cases.

When Sotomayor’s named was widely floated in recently weeks as one of the leading contenders for the court, some legal commentators opined that her opinions did not have great intellectual heft and that she was unlikely to fulfill the role of a judicial powerhouse who could win over moderate judges by the weight of her argument. Many of the critics were anonymous lawyers who had handled cases before her.

However, a group of former clerk and other attorneys quickly rose to her defense, saying that she is a top-caliber jurist.

Some scholars contend that the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court was actually Justice Benjamin Cardozo, whose served on the court from 1932 to 1938 after being nominated by President Herbert Hoover. Cardozo was of Portuguese descent.

Sotomayer is a firm believer in theory that the constitution is a "living" document subject to interpretation according to her own beliefs rather than a basis for our legal system that is inviolate. She is not qualified to on the Supreme Court because she does not believe in the basic responsibility of the court which is to uphold the constitution not interpret it to fit her own ideology.

ONCE AGAIN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA MAKES HISTORY FIRST HISPANIC SUPREME COURT JUSTICE IN US HISTORY. TAKE THAT REPUBLICAN BIGOTS !!! WOW RUSH LIMBAUGH ALREADY CALLED SOTOMAYOR A RACIST AND AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PICK, DIDNT TAKE SO LONG FOR THE DEAR LEADER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO SPEW HIS HATEFUL VENOM IN THE NAME OF THE REPUBLICAN BIGOTED PARTY !!! FILIBUSTER THAT AND LOOSE FOR SURE IN 2010/2012 2014/2016... YOU KNOW HOW IT GOES ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES... DEAL WITH IT !!!

It will be interesting to see what the GOP does with this. They have been screaming that they were going to obstruct. Sotomayhor has excellent qualifications. I suspect women and Hispanics will be watching to see if the Republicans try to trash her.

Considering all he wants to do this year, it is a serious mistake to pick this fight now. There will be bitter fights over her while they are trying to pass healthcare and energy policy.

He would have gotten at least one more chance to pick her. Doing it now is going to cost him. This will be a brutal fight and Obama better pray she has no ghosts in her closest (his team has sucked at finding other people's ghosts in the past).

The Republicans are going to have a hissy fit over this, but she was first appointed by George Bush in the 90's, can't wait for the battle to begin. Republicans are going to lose this and further alienate more of the voting population.

The Republicans are going to have a hissy fit over this, but she was first appointed by George Bush in the 90's, can't wait for the battle to begin. Republicans are going to lose this and further alienate more of the voting population.

Kathleen Sullivan is more of an intellectual heavyweight that could've been great but Obama was no doubt too scurred to nominate a gay woman. So he compromised and ended up with this woman who does not strike me as formidable or as a profound thinker. But I will go off and read her decisions with an open mind now and see what she is all about.

Seems like a fear based and a politically based decision. Fill in the blanks for the hispanic voters we want to attract. Not impressive.